Free Change

Flowers on a Neighborhood Tree

Originally uploaded by gregoniemeyer

Flowers, fate and clouds all are somewhat amorphous in the individual instance, and every time we look at them they change. So instead of each indiviual blossom on a tree, botanists can describe the general process which modifies a bud into a blossom, and with fertilization, a blossom into a seed. The “ABC Model of Flower Development” (Coen and Meyerowitz, 1991) describes which genes control the successive formation of flower elements, including sepals, petals, stamens and carpels. Similarly, the I Ching, a Taoist Divination manual, describes not the myriad outcomes of the flow between Ying and Yang, but instead lists 64 types of modifications which might affect the fortune-seeker. Luke Howard, the British Meterologist who named the clouds (Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus) in 1802, likewise insisted that his nomenclature does not describe clouds as objects but rather the types of modifications they undergo. Complex networks such as paypal, wikipedia or twitter often are described as “the cloud”. Like other “uncountable things” these information clouds are best understood in terms of the modifications they undergo, rather than in explicit terms. It is in their nature to change, so what types of changes are they going through? The environment, with its ecosystems driven by the qualities of air, water and light, natural selection, cultivation, and pollution, too, would make more sense if we could describe it in terms of its modifications, rather than explicit lists of its states.
The more I work on the Black Cloud, the more I desire a nomenclature of modifications to describe our observations. We see, so far, the following modifications of air quality and human experiences: Consumption, Pollution,, Regeneration, Education, Conservation Innovation. Consumption is the natural modification of using up resources through combustion. Consumption can accelerate or decelerate. Pollution is a consequence of Consumption. Primary Pollution means that waste products replace resources. Secondary Pollution means that the waste products produce eco-systems of their own which in turn can produce other waste products that are toxic to humans. Regeneration is the modification by which natural and cultural systems can restore resources. Education is a cultural modification that occurs when people associate information about air quality with their actions. The more local we can make the information, the more effective the information is at affecting people’s consumption behaviors. Conservation is a cultural modification where people adjust the quantity of consumption. Innovation is a cultural modification where people seek to increase benefits and reduce consumption at the same time. These groups of modifications seem to me to be the best way to describe what Black Cloud is, and I can still appreciate the blossoming of my neighbors tree.